Department of Legal Aid

The Directorate of Legal Aid is one of the professional directorates of the Ministry of Justice. This directorate was first established in 1989 within the framework of the Supreme Court and until the end of 1386, it was operating within the framework of the country's judiciary. After 1387, according to the decree of the government of the time, all its staffs were transferred to the Ministry of Justice from the formation of the court.

The Directorate pursues its duties in order to provide free legal aid in accordance with the Legal Aid Regulation, which is enacted in accordance with the provision of Article 3 of the Law on Defense Lawyers, and regulates the formation, duties and competencies of the Legal Aid Administration and the manner in which legal aid is operated and other matters relating to the provision of legal aid by the authorities providing legal aid.

Mission:

As, the right to have an attorney or legal Aid is one of the fundamental rights of suspects and defendants and has been expedited in domestic law, according to the provisions of Article 31 of the Constitution, Article 2 of the Law on Defense Lawyers, Article (4) of the Law on the Regulation of Legal Aid and other legislative documents, the providing of legal aid for suspects and indigent are among the obligations of the Ministry of Justice.

Furthermore, in the National Policy of Legal Aid, The Ministry of Justice's National Strategy and Policy, and other documents such as roadmaps and evaluation of legal Aid, providing of legal Aid and legal advice for suspects, defendants or convicted or victim in criminal cases and in family cases for indigent children and women have been stipulated as one of the key tasks.

Therefore, the mission of the Directorate of Legal Aid is to provide equal access to justice for the deserving people of society through the providing of legal services and assistance and legal advice.

Organizational Structure:

Providing and implementation of the above mission in accordance with the provisions and instructions of the mentioned documents is the responsibility of the Directorate of Legal Aid which is established in the formation of the Ministry of Justice of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which has the following central and provincial organizational structure:

Central formation:

The Legal Aid Directorate with the existence of the second grade position, mentioned by the name of Legal Assistance Authority in the Legal Aid Regulation, has two sub-directorates (legal aid and public legal awareness) and their administrative and executive affairs are carried out by professional and administrative staff (positions of grade 5 and 6).

The Legal Aid Directorate has one Sub-director in (grade 3) and 25 legal assistants in (grade 4) in Kabul.The Legal Public Awareness Directorate has one Sub-director in (grade 3) and 4 civil education teachers in (grade 4) and 15 public legal awareness advertisers in (grade 5).
In total, the Legal Aid Directorate in the center has (52) administrative and service personnel.

Provincial Formation:

The Legal Aid Directorate in the provinces has 33 positions of Sub-directorates in (grade 3) and 44 legal aid personnel in (grade 4) and 33 public awareness advertisers of the legal public of Best 5. The number of legal aid providers and legal public awareness staff in the province has been adjusted according to the population, work density and volume of cases and administrative grading of the provinces. Thus, according to the number of legal aid and public legal awareness, including legal aid sub-directors in the formation of justice directorates of each province from one to two are legal aid providers and one is public legal awareness advertiser.

Providing legal aid at the district level:

As, the provision of legal services and aid is one of the duties of the government and for the purpose of providing to indigent suspects and clients have access to these services in accordance with legislative documents and national policy of legal aid, these services should also be provided at the district level. The Ministry of Justice of The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is trying to expand these services at the district level in accordance with the strategy and policy of the Ministry of Justice.

Duties and Competences of legal aid administration:

The Legal Aid Administration and its related Sub-directorates in the provinces have the following duties and authorities:

Receiving indigent forms, reviewing and making decisions about determining or rejecting legal aid provider.
Determining and assigning of legal aid provider and advertisers of public legal awareness in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation on the Regulation of Legal Aid and the National Legal Public Awareness Strategy.
Using legal aid database.
Supervising the performance of legal aid providers and related public awareness staff and obtaining reports from their performance.
Collecting accurate statistics, providing of legal aid and awareness by legal aid providers and related public awareness staff.
Appointing of legal aid provider in order to provide legal aid for victim and in civil cases for indigent children and women and provide legal awareness to the citizens of the country.
Ensuring the justice and judicial authorities that is determined by legal aid provider at every stage of the prosecution for a suspect and indigent convicted.
Ensuring the cooperation of justice and judicial authorities and public and private administrations with legal aid providers and relevant public legal awareness staff during the duties.
Ensuring the justice and judicial authorities regarding the legal aid providing, designated by legal aid provider, for children and women in family cases.
Holding seminars, workshops, courses and training programs to promote the level of professional knowledge of legal aid providers and legal public awareness of legal aid administration.
Providing of quarterly report of related performances and activities to the high authority of ministry and commission.
Performing of other duties assigned to him by the Minister of Justice or the Commission

Duties and Obligations of Legal Aid Provider:

Providing legal aid for suspects, defendants or convicted indigent and defending the rights of indigent children and women in family cases, including victim and other vulnerable layers are as followings:

claiming criminal proceedings pages relating to the client at all stages of the prosecution, meeting with the client, understandings, correspondences and communications of the client under supervision, detention or imprisonment in an environment in which his secrets can be preserved;
Providing legal aid with honesty and trustworthiness and respect for the client's personality, avoiding any kind of gender, language, ethnic, regional and racial discrimination;
Refraining from any kind of aid to the opposite of client and refraining from any actions that would cause unconscionable delay in the investigation and trial process;
Obtaining the client's documents, preserving and returning it to the client in exchange for a written document, registering the information of the assigned cases to the database and submitting a report of the daily execution to the relevant authority.

Duties and obligations of legal public awareness staff

Raising the level of legal awareness of the citizens of the country regarding their religious and legal rights.
Introducing justice and judicial institutions, competence, responsibilities and procedures of these institutions.
Providing coordination and cooperation with governmental and non-governmental entities to provide legal awareness.
Providing legal advice to the indigent.

Providing advice and legal Aid:

Providing legal advice is one of the key tasks of this administration and legal advice is provided to the suspect, accused or convicted, indigent women and children, vulnerable layers and other applicants by legal aid provider and public legal awareness staff according to the ordered format. Legal advice is provided after the filling of counseling form based on religious and legal rulings and it is approved by the head of the administration.